This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Large scale food facilities, such as grocery stores, restaurants, cafeterias, commercial kitchens, hotels, stadiums, and the like, can generate a large amount of food waste. Traditionally, the food waste is disposed of in trash bags and hauled to a landfill. Alternatively, the food waste can be collected and transported to an anaerobic digestion facility where the food waste can be converted to methane gas, which can be captured for energy generation, and solids, which can be used for fertilizer. It is difficult, however, for large scale food facilities to store food waste for extended periods of time, to predict the optimal food waste pickup times for efficient scheduling, to determine the amount of food waste being generated or the corresponding amount of methane gas that could be produced by the food waste. Additionally, existing systems do not provide sufficient feedback or data collection to allow large scale food facilities to monitor or diagnose issues, faults, or malfunctions with the systems.